Key West is a small island. One and one half by four miles. It has been buried with too much construction, too many hotels, restaurants, bars, vehicular traffic, and tourists. I am surprised the island has not yet sunk. Key west is a new Atlantis in the making.

The Key West City commission is money crazy. Always the need for more money. Only to be not spent or spent to do totally illogical things. Last night, the Commission voted to increase parking rates by $1. Parking is already too expensive. Street parking $2 per hour, Mallory Square $4 per hour, the Bight $2.50 per hour.

The Commission says don’t worry, tourists will be paying it. They forget there are people like me. I do not live in Key West proper. I am 2.5 miles outside Key West in Key Haven. However, I drive into town twice a day. Costs me $8-10 a day to park. Now to go up by a dollar an hour.

In addition to which I spend a ton of money in Key West.

Key West workers have been told not to worry. They can park at one of the two municipal garages and be bused wherever.

The Commission is also going to require the Parking Department to chalk mark ties to better control time/overtime. Brilliant! Most if not all cities were doing it 60 years ago. None today. They depend on more sophisticated means to ascertain time violators.

The Commission does not realize this is the 21st century. Get with it, guys!

Hurricane Matthew. Wow! By the grace of God, Key West will miss it. However, the mainland is in for a beating. This is one of the worst hurricanes ever. A high 4 with the probability of becoming a 5. Destruction galore!

Tomorrow morning at this time, Matthew will be over Palm Beach.

Good sized water vessels have already come into Key West for shelter from the storm. More expected. They are primarily dropping anchor in the Outer Mole and the Coast Guard sector.

Don’s Place first last night. Good conversation with Don, Stan and Clare. Clare promoted! She is now the Manager of Dion’s at White and Truman. A big place, a big job.

Then to Back Door and Mark Watson.

David stopped by. He educated me. The sky had a golden hue. He said it was called the Golden Light and appeared when a hurricane was on the way.

Met Jan and Kim.

Jan is a snowbird. RV lover. A retired Marine master sergeant. Drove to Key West from northern Georgia. I enjoyed her company. A knowledgeable person re world events. Especially Russia and the Middle East.

Kim arrived in Key West a few hours before appearing at Back Door. From Los Angeles and Portland. Came a long way to spend some time in Key West. She is here for several months, perhaps forever. A biologist by education and a journeyman electrician by experience. She appeared to enjoy the electrical work better.

October is the tenth anniversary of Girls’ Night Out. From 16 the first night to 2,000 ten years later. Good job, Mary Lou Hoover!

Greater love hath no man…..A tale of morbid obsession. The story of Carl Tanzer aka Count von Cosel. Tanzer is the whacky hospital employee whose love died. He dug her body up two years after burial. Took her to his home. Kept her in his bed seven years before being discovered.

Tanzer was arrested on this day in 1940.

Syracuse/Wake Forest saturday. Wake Forest a 2.5 point favorite. I suspect Wake Forest will beat Syracuse by a much higher number. This not the year for our football team! We continue to wait. Patiently.

One of the giants of the 20th century was Anwar Sadat. Egyptian President, Nobel Peace Prize winner, peacemaker with Israel.

Sadat was assassinated this date in 1981. He was in a stand reviewing troops. Islamic extremists did not like him. Two reasons. First, his peace efforts with Israel. Second, that he permitted the deposed Shah of Iran to remain in Egypt to await death from cancer. He refused to return him to Iran to be tried for war crimes.

A vehicle with armed troops drove up in front of the stand Sadat was standing on. Their guns blazed, grenades exploded. Sadat took four bullets and died.

The event was filmed/recorded. I can still see Sadat standing tall and glaring into their eyes. He never budged, never attempted to duck nor avoid the assassins.